Tortured Mind
by Bree Colbern
Summary: "Just to make sure you understand how serious I am about this; every hour that you do not deliver, I'm afraid things are going to have to get, well, sort of, unpleasant for the Captain."
1. Expect The Unexpected

**This is gonna' be a long first chapter...But hey! It has to be! :D Okay, so what started out as just a little filler, and a small story to stop my writer's block so I can actually start on 'Would It Matter' (Still haven't yet *facepalm*), has turned into this; a ten chapter story. My first one! *Pumps fist towards sky***

 **So, yeah, if you could please excuse the lengths of the chapters, and if my writing is horrible. I apologize. It's just that I hope this is a good story, I honestly never know when it comes to my stories...** **I was hoping to have it published by August 17, last Wednesday, which was my birthday, but then; *drum roll* _life happened._ *deadpans* **

**So, after all that, please enjoy and R/R! :)**

 **Disclaimer: Um, nope. I don't own this. Or even any other of my stories!**

* * *

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm beat," Tony said as the six Avengers all stumbled into the main living room of the Tower.

They had just finished fighting a group of would-be-terrorists, and were all hungry, beat-up and bruised, but were also too exhausted to really care.

They didn't even bother to turn on the lights once they were all in the room. "I'm just gonna' turn in for the night." Tony said with a yawn. Several simultaneous 'goodnights' were mumbled before Tony left the room, leaving only five Avengers.

Clint and Thor did the usual thing they did after a mission; they went to the fridge to heat up some food to eat, while Natasha collapsed on the nearest couch.

"Yeah, I think I might, too." Bruce said as he waved once to everyone while walking out of the room, looking utterly drained while doing so.

"Same here," Natasha said quietly. She got up from the couch wearily and headed towards the hallway, where her room was located. Tony had set up rooms for all of the Avengers on one floor so that after every mission they could just go there and crash where they wouldn't be disturbed.

She offered a goodnight before leaving the room like she always did; quietly and stealthily, even though she was thoroughly worn out.

A 'ding' could be heard, signaling Clint and Thor's food was ready, so they lazily took the food out and started eating.

During this whole process, however, Steve had remained planted in the doorway entrance to the room.

Leaning heavily on the sides of it.

His eyes kept threatening to close, but he had refused to let them do so until everyone was safe and sound. He glanced over at the archer and god who tiredly ate there spaghetti; looking like they were about to pass out any second.

It had been 49 hours since Steve had last slept.

He would love to lie and say it was because he had been too busy, but he couldn't.

It was because of fear.

Fear of being burdened with the same nightmares over and over like always. But right now he couldn't really bring himself to care very much as exhaustion started taking over. And the pain from being thrown into the side of a brick building maybe once.

Or twice.

He straightened himself and somehow started walking over to the hallway, even though he hadn't even really thought that much about doing so. Before exiting the room, however, he paused and turned around to face his teammates.

"You did good, guys. I'll see you in the morning," He said and Clint did a poor excuse of a salute, and Thor just smiled. Steve smiled back before heading down the hallway to his room.

He carefully and quietly opened his room's door, and entered it; making sure he didn't make nearly a sound to wake the others.

Although a train could probably come barreling through and not even wake up his exhausted teammates.

He didn't even bother changing out of his uniform before collapsing onto his bed. He moved onto his back, and had fallen asleep before even getting the chance to say his usual night prayers.

* * *

 _"Are you gonna' dance with her or not, Steve?" Bucky asked in exasperation at the shy blonde standing beside him. Steve was gazing at Peggy from across the dance floor like a lovesick puppy._

 _Or golden retriever, as Bucky had told him he looked like a lot. Bucky gave him a friendly shove to the shoulder, snapping Steve out of his daydream._

 _"What?" Steve asked, absolutely clueless. Bucky rolled his eyes._

 _"Go ask her. Now." He demanded while crossing his arms. Steve sighed._

 _"You know I can't do that, Buck." He said, earning an exasperated look from Bucky._

 _"Yeah, yeah, I get it. You're afraid you'll make a fool out of yourself and then she'll hate you and you'll live the rest of your life being miserable. Well, look, you've made a fool out of yourself in front of me plenty of times, but I still like you." Bucky said and this time it was Steve's turn to roll his eyes._

 _"You always know just what to say," Steve muttered, and Bucky smirked before going serious again._

 _"Steve, come on, Peggy likes you, you like her. You're a great guy, Steve, and I know Peggy's not gonna' pass up the chance to be with you." Bucky said before patting Steve on the back, causing Steve to smile shyly._

 _"Now; go." He said before gently shoving Steve forward. Steve cast a soft glare back at Bucky who just smirked, before taking a deep breath and fixing his uniform._ _ **Here goes nothing**_ _, he thought to himself, before heading over towards Peggy's direction._

 _She was standing next to a couple of other girls, laughing and smiling, and Steve didn't think he had ever felt any more nervous than he did right in that moment; not even when he became Captain America._

 _Peggy was wearing a beautiful white flowing dress, and had her hair down and was wearing that bright red lipstick she seemed to always have on._

 _Ever since his almost death with crashing Schmidt's plane in the ice, he had eagerly been waiting for the night when they would go dancing. It had been postponed due to all of his injuries with the crash, but now Howard had insisted on having a party to celebrate Captain America's survival._

 _Steve took another deep breath before walking up to Peggy, greeting both her and the other ladies with a smile. One of the ladies blushed while the other one shyly tucked a lock of blonde hair behind her ear._

 _"Steve," Peggy said with a small smile. He held out his hand to her._

 _"May I have this dance?" He asked, and could practically feel Bucky's smirk from behind him as he watched Steve and Peggy._

 _Peggy also had a hint of a smirk in her chocolate colored eyes, that he could lost in. Peggy placed her hand in his and he lead her out to the dance floor._

 _A slow song started playing, and her hand drifted up to his shoulders, while his hands went to the sides of her waist._

 _They started swaying to the soft music, and Steve couldn't think of any other time when he had ever felt so happy and comfortable in all of his life._

 _Peggy slowly leaned in until her head was resting in the crook of his neck, and so her arms were at a more comfortable place. He could see out of the corner of his eyes that Bucky was grinning like a madman and Steve just chuckled inwardly._

 _He gently brought her closer to him, protectively and sighed with contentment. Suddenly, their moment of tranquility was interrupted by a loud 'bang'. Steve immediately looked up just in time to see his best friend fall to his knees, blood splattered on his chest._

 _Their eyes locked gazes for a split second, before a lifeless look glazed over Bucky's eyes and he fell to the ground. The room erupted in chaos, and everyone around Steve all started dying from gunshots._

 _Steve and Peggy rushed over to Bucky, but he knew it was too late. Amidst all of the confusion and terror, Steve was by Bucky's side, checking for a pulse, but feeling none._

 _"No!" He cried out as he looked down at his dead best friend, but then heard a scream come from behind him._

 _He quickly turned around and saw Peggy clutching her chest where red spotted her white dress, and fall down to the ground dead. Horror filled his chest as he watched the scene play out before him._

 _"No, this can't be happening!" He shouted as he crawled over to her limp body. He saw Howard and all of his fellow commandoes all dying one by one._

 _"No! God, please don't let this happen!" He prayed aloud, but cried out in horror as he looked down at all of his friend's body. Tears spilled over the edges of his eyes as everyone around him died._

 _Suddenly, a dark figure emerged from the shadows holding a smoking gun. "You monster!" Steve yelled out at it, but it only laughed in bitter amusement._

 _"They are all dead, you can not bring them back! You've outlived them Captain America! You are alone! They can_ _ **never**_ _be brought back," The voice paused and he heard a gun cock, "So let me bring you to them," The figure said calmly._

 _Steve faintly heard a loud bang ring out into the air, before everything went black._

* * *

Steve jolted awake, panting heavily as sweat clung to his brow. He gasped for air, but none came. He grasped the sheets around him and took a moment to realize it was just a dream. He took a few shaky deep breaths, but nothing seemed to calm him down.

He had his fists clenched so tight, he could feel himself losing feeling in them. Tears streamed down his cheeks as his lungs begged for air, but he couldn't fill them. He clumsily climbed out of bed and suddenly felt way too claustrophobic.

He needed out.

He ran out of his room shakily, and went to the stairs, knowing that he'd go crazy in the elevator.

The whole world was spinning, but he tried to stay upright. His breaths were shallow and his lungs felt like they had ceased up; he felt as if he was having an asthma attack again.

He tried to shake the image of Bucky's bloodstained shirt out of his mind, but nothing worked.

He kept being flooded with the images of Bucky and Peggy slowly dying right beside him; their screams kept echoing in his head and tearing at every piece of him. He stumbled forward, but somehow managed to keep his balance by grabbing onto the stairwell railing.

He ran straight down to the door and fumbled with the knob, before yanking it open and running outside. He was immediately welcomed by a cool, brisk breeze and almost sighed in relief. He could feel the tension slip away as he felt the wind blow onto his skin.

It was then that he realized he was still wearing his uniform from the day before, and it was probably about 2:00 A.M.

He looked around and noticed a bunch of cars driving by and loud noises, and bright lights surrounded him. He looked to the side and noticed a small road leading to a more secluded area.

He closed his eyes a moment, to try and get rid of the horrible images in his eyes, and headed towards that road.

About twenty minutes later, he found himself in some small town, quite a ways from the Tower, just walking and thinking about different things. He tried to think about good things, like his new teammates and friends, but that only reminded him of his old teammates and friends.

And how Bucky had been so young, and so full of life. And just because Steve wasn't fast enough, Bucky had lost all of that. He heard a shuffling sound, and paused to make sure he had heard right.

He heard it again, only slightly quieter, and immediately went on guard; but it was too late. Suddenly, about six guys emerged from a nearby alley, while four came out from the shadows behind him.

He managed to land a few good hits on a couple of them, and even knock a couple of the people out. But that provided him nothing as he felt a tremendous force hit the back of his head and shatter.

His vision suddenly became blurry and he fell to his knees. He was suddenly reminded of how much being thrown into a brick wall can affect a person's fighting skills.

He tried not to let that stop him, but when another hit connected with the back of his skull, he slipped into the darkness that was beckoning for him.

* * *

"What do you mean he's gone!?" Tony shouted at Clint and Natasha. It was sometime around six in the morning, and Tony was mad.

Mad because he couldn't sleep in like he desperately needed and wanted to, and mad because Natasha and Clint had just informed him that their beloved Captain was missing.

"He's freakin' Captain America! He can't just go missing randomly! He's not like some, some sock or something!" Clint raised an eyebrow at Tony, who just groaned and plopped down onto the couch behind him. "Hey, I'm tired. Give me a break, I can't be brilliant all the time." He muttered and Clint just rolled his eyes.

"Listen, Tony," Natasha began, obviously unfazed by his actions. "He's always up at this time and he wasn't this morning-"

"He could be sleeping in, ya' know, that _was_ a tough mission; even for a Super-Soldier." Tony cut in and ignored Natasha's death glare.

"And when we tried to get into his room to make sure he was okay, since he does seem to have a tendency to lie about his injuries," Natasha said and Tony huffed. That was definitely something Steve was known for.

Once he had somehow managed to get shot in his upper shoulder, and had somehow played it off as if it was just some scrape; how nobody had noticed was still a mystery to Tony.

But the Avengers had noticed blood seeping through his jacket on his shoulder, and before long Steve had passed out from blood loss.

Tony shook his head at the memory; Steve had scared them all so bad with that, he acted like he was invincible, like he could take anything.

But the problem is, they had all bought it, and still sometimes struggled to believe the guy could actually get hurt.

"And I ended up having to pick the lock, only to find that he wasn't in the room. So, we asked J.A.R.V.I.S where he was, and he said that he had left the Tower at exactly 2:07 this morning." Anger boiled somewhere deep down in Tony at his supposedly trustworthy A.I.

"Why on earth would he leave the Tower at 2:07? And just why the heck did you not tell us about, J.A.R.V.I.S?" Tony directed up towards the ceiling.

"I am sorry, Sir," If an A.I could possibly sound guilty, J.A.R.V.I.S did. Tony huffed in annoyance. Good. It served him right.

"J.A.R.V.I.S, why did Steve leave the Tower at such an early time?" Bruce asked from his position on the bar stool in the kitchen.

"I believe it was from a nightmare. He appeared to be in emotional and slight physical distress when he ran out." Tony groaned and laid his head back on the couch.

"If I could ground you, I so would," Tony muttered.

"What kind of physical distress, J.A.R.V.I.S?" Bruce asked, appearing undeterred by Tony interrupting.

"A panic attack, Sir." J.A.R.V.I.S said, and Tony's head shot up so fast, he brought a hand up to his neck to relieve himself of the shooting pain there. He grimaced before speaking.

"A panic attack? Steve was having a panic attack!?" Tony asked, knowing full well how horrible those things were.

"Yes, Sir," The A.I. responded hesitantly.

"I don't know why I even bother," Tony said before getting up and walking over to the kitchen where he poured himself a glass of coffee. He immediately winced as the horrible flavor met his tongue. He gulped and set the mug down on the counter harshly.

"Gross. Who made that?" He asked, glancing over every member until he saw Clint holding his hand up guiltily. Tony shook his head and mumbled something.

"Hey! Steve's the one who usually makes it, don't blame me." Clint defended.

"Speaking of him," Natasha interrupted their glaring contest by fixing them up with one of her own. They both cowered away, still pouting in frustration; even though it was just from Steve being gone. "We still don't know where he is."

"Maybe he's on his motorcycle," Bruce suggested and Natasha shook her head lightly.

"No, his motorcycle is still in the garage." She replied with.

"Maybe he-" Clint started saying, but was interrupted by J.A.R.V.I.S.

"Yes, J.A.R.V.I.S?" Tony asked, annoyed.

"I believe you should see this. It explains the Captain's whereabouts," Tony raised a brow and shot a glance towards the others, before telling J.A.R.V.I.S to turn on the TV and show them.

Static was shown, before they could both see a dark room with a small light on somewhere. Clint and Natasha simultaneously leaned in closer to the camera, as if it would bring them closer.

Suddenly, another light flicked on, and several gasps echoed each other throughout the room. The light revealed Steve in a chair, head drooping down to his chest, arms chained to two poles beside him, and the top half of his uniform appeared to be gone.

There were several fresh cuts across his arms and chest; some deep, some shallow. Steve appeared to be unconscious, also.

Suddenly, a masked man walked in front of the camera, obscuring their view of Steve.

Tony's hand instinctively clenched into a fist, while he could see Bruce's eyes tinge green, along with Clint and Natasha standing straighter.

"Who the hell are you!?" Tony demanded, but the figure merely laughed.

"That you shall not find out." He said, and they could all practically see the smirk behind the mask.

"Who are you and what are you doing with Steve?" Natasha asked, calm and cool, but her eyes told of a different emotion. The guy waved his hand impassively and shrugged.

"I am not here to mingle," He said with a hint of a British accent. "I am here for business. If you want your precious Captain back, then you will pay a fine. Understood?" He asked, as if he was talking to a child.

"I think Captain America is worth at least two billion dollars, right?" He asked with a slight cock of his head.

"So this is some sort of ransom?" Clint asked, arms crossed and glare unwavering.

"You are correct, _Hawkeye_. The spot where I wish for you to drop the money off is located at the harbor, where a small boat is waiting. It will be empty, but I hope you know not to bring anyone along, Stark. Any S.H.I.E.L.D agent, and Avenger, or anyone else, and I will personally kill Captain America." The man said with another undeniable smirk.

"Oh, and just to make sure you understand how serious I am about this; every hour that you do not deliver, I'm afraid things are going to have to get, well, sort of, _unpleasant_ for the Captain." He spoke, voice menacingly low.

He then snapped his fingers, and another person wearing a mask could be seen pushing a metal table next to Steve.

Tony's eyes widened in horror at the items are the table. It had several different size knives on it and a gun. The guy walked over to the table and picked up one of the long knives and examined it a moment.

"No..." Tony whispered. The guy looked up at the screen once more, before turning around and shoving the knife into Steve's thigh. Steve jerked awake and yanked back, sonly to suddenly be electrocuted.

"No!" Clint yelled as he slammed his hands down on the table.

"Steve!" Natasha yelled out, losing her composure only for a moment. Steve's jerking stopped after a little bit, and his body went still, except for the heavy, labored breathing. His chest rose and fell back down again shakily. The guy turned back around to face the camera, and shrugged.

"Ah, did I forget to tell you that whenever he moves his arms he'll be electrocuted by these two poles?" He asked in fake sympathy. "Oops." Tony glared at the man, before looking over at Steve who was weakly shaking his head and trying to focus on something.

 _Anything._

Tony tried not to let his gaze go down to the knife, but couldn't stop himself from doing so. He could see all of the blood just pouring out and turning his blue uniform a deep shade of purple.

Steve blinked a few times and looked up at the man beside him. His face immediately went neutral and his eyes contained a hint of a glare, as if he had just realized what was happening.

He straightened, but immediately clenched his teeth, the act of moving looking like it cost him greatly. The look Steve was giving the man would have made any other man cower and hide, but this man just laughed maliciously.

"Who are you?" Steve asked, voice low and slightly raspy. It wasn't until then that they all noticed the fresh blood slowly streaming down his neck from the back of his head.

Tony shot a glance at the others, who looked like they had just noticed it, too. The guy shook his head disapprovingly.

"What is with the Avengers and all these questions?" He muttered in a jest tone. "You do not care who I am. What you should care about is your fellow teammates," He said, and Steve immediately stiffened.

The guy gestured up to the screen, and Steve's gaze slowly followed, until it landed on his teammates.

His posture slowly relaxed when he realized his teammates were safe. "Now, back to business; I need to make sure that you know just how serious I am." The guy said, voice dripping with poison; he picked up the knife and twirled it in his fingers before shoving it into Steve's side.

Steve jerked again, and his teeth clenched as a wave of electricity went through him.

He closed his eyes, and before he could even catch his breath, the guy shoved another knife into his other thigh.

Steve did his best not to move as the guy took a different knife and slowly ran it along Steve's arm, drawing blood as he pushed down on it harder; breaking the skin, covering his arm in crimson.

Steve could faintly hear his teammates, mainly Tony, yelling obscenities at his captor, but couldn't really hear anything over the ringing in his ears.

The knife was lifted off of his skin, but Steve knew there was more to come; he just didn't know how much and how bad.

Why did the guy want just him?

Was it because he was the Leader? Or was it because of something else?

Steve wasn't sure about that, but his guess was correct about one thing; he could feel the knife slide across his chest, breaking the skin and drawing even more blood.

He felt three tremendous pains in his thighs and stomach, and several much smaller ones over his chest and arms. He swallowed hard, trying not to move, knowing what'll happen if he does.

After a while, the pain ceased and he opened his eyes. His vision was still sightly blurred from what he guessed was a concussion.

He could feel a wet and sticky substance on his neck from an unbearable pain in the back of his head, but tried to ignore that as he blinked.

His vision slowly came back, and he could hear heavy breathing; which he realized was coming from himself.

He looked up at the screen and saw his teammates all glaring at the masked man next to him. He feebly looked up at the guy also, wondering why the heck he was so weak.

He was tempted to try and break the chains on his wrists, but was afraid of what would happen with the electricity.

Apparently, his teammates and the guy had been talking the whole time and he just hadn't realized it.

"So," The guy was saying, "I guess that proves how serious I am. Now," He paused and glanced at the table once before focusing on the camera again. "Get to work Avengers." He said before the screen went black. He turned his attention to Steve; who was slowly drifting back into unconsciousness.

But he blinked back the heavy cloud over his eyes, and managed to focus on a tall figure next to him.

"W-what do you want with m-me?" Steve asked, voice slurring heavily, yet unwillingly. A dull throb was pounding in the back of his head, and he could only guess there was something seriously wrong.

His movements, as little as they were, were sluggish, his mind was foggy, and his memory had proven to be awful at the moment.

And for some odd reason, he couldn't feel his right leg, or even his right arm.

It was almost like his whole, not entirely, because he could still move the top part of his arm and above, right side was numb.

"A ransom. What else?" The guy asked matter-of-factly, and he probably was talking normally, but to Steve he was screaming with a couple of the words. His vision was fuzzy, also.

Yup, something was definitely wrong.

"Little do your teammates know that I have a different plan in progress." The guy said smugly as he walked over to the table with knives and picked one up; examining it with his back to Steve.

"W-what plan?" Steve asked, consciousness slowly drifting away. The guy chuckled evilly; never bothering to turn around to face him as he spoke.

"My plan to take out the Avengers, of course." He began, "You see, I don't really want that ransom money, all though I'll admit, it will be a nice addition to this whole thing. But no, that's not it. You see, when Stark comes to bring the ransom money, my assistant will shoot him."

Steve tensed up immediately, but could feel his body start slumping again right afterwards.

Tony wouldn't see it coming, and there was no way Steve could warn him. He only hoped that Tony would wear his Iron Man suit.

"And then when the rest of the Avengers come swooping in to save the day and blah, blah, blah," The guy said in an annoyed tone, waving the knife around carelessly.

"We will be waiting for them, ready to take them out. And then what comes next is my favorite part; you will be killed. But it will be no ordinary death, it will be slow and painful and I will make you beg for death. You will be at my mercy, and though you shall beg, I shall not give it to you. Fun, right?" The guy asked menacingly.

Steve huffed, much more confident than he should be, yet with his fight with trying to stay conscious waning, he couldn't really bring himself to care.

"H-how c-could you p-possibly believe t-that you could d-defeat the Avengers?" Steve asked, head slowly drooping down to his chest. "T-there's no w-way you're nearly t-that powerful. You only a-act t-that w-way." He paused to take a shaky breath in to continue.

"If i-it wasn't f-for your f-friend, y-you would have n-never have c-caught m-me." He stuttered, and those last few words must have definitely struck a nerve. The guy spun around and pointed his knife at Steve.

"I am too powerful! I don't need some lame assistant who does nothing to take down you Avengers! I will defeat you personally!" He shouted, but still, Steve managed to smile dazedly as his eyelids began to shut.

"A-and what makes you s-so sure you can defeat t-them? A g-god, a-and a whole r-race of aliens t-tried, but f-failed. You'll do t-the s-same," His eyes grew heavy and he could feel himself falling back into that pit of darkness, but not before the man next to him regained his composure and chuckled sickly.

"You have no idea what I am capable of, Captain America." The guy said, and the last thing Steve heard was a knife being sharpened before he plunged into darkness.

* * *

 **Ta-da! A cliffie! :D Well, sort of... I don't know. Anyway, some how I always end up torturing poor Stevie in my stories. Like, seriously, in every single one! Oh well...**

 **But I seriously don't know how this happened. It strayed a fair ways away from where I intended. I don't know why, but the villains in my story always seem to have that cliche sort of personality. Eh, I don't know.**


	2. Painful Patience

***Drum roll* Here it is! I know, I know, not a long wait, but then again none of these will be! ;P Now, before you start, I have a question; does anyone know of any good Steve!whump stories that aren't slash or anything? I have such a hard time trying to find any good Steve stories. And if you can think of any, can pretty _please_ tell me about them? Thanks! **

**And another moment just to say how much I truly appreciate you guys. All of you. I just absolutely love all your reviews! And the favorites and follows, it just makes my life Heaven! I really needed this, and fanfiction has definitely helped me with confidence and all sorts of things. I hope I can inspire you guys to do the same!**

 **Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: Uh-uh. I don't own this. Get the picture?**

* * *

"What are we going to do?" Natasha asked everybody. Tony's foot was tapping rapidly, and every once and a while he would curse under his breath, Bruce was still on his seat over by the kitchen, trying to fight off the Hulk that was threatening his control.

Thor hadn't woken up yet, Clint was still facing the TV, ready to kill whoever that guy was, and Natasha was standing straight as a pin, trying to not show any emotion whatsoever.

"The only thing we can do, I've got to deliver that ransom," Tony said and Natasha shook her head.

"You can't do that," She began, "We don't know for sure that he won't still kill Steve." She crossed her arms and moved over to the large floor to ceiling to look out at the city and rising sun; remembering how Steve loved to come out and sit there early in the morning to try and capture the beauty of the sunrise and waking city.

"We have to break him out," She said, and could immediately feel all of the tension in the room be turned onto her. She braced herself for what was to come, and turned around.

"What!? How are we supposed to do that? We don't even know where this guy is!" Tony shouted, but Natasha kept her cool and delivered her steely cool gaze towards Tony.

"You heard the man, every hour that we don't 'deliver', Cap's gonna' get seriously punished!"

Natasha sighed, but Tony kept on talking. "So, just how are we supposed to get him back without giving him the ransom?"

"We don't know that Steve won't die even with the ransom," Natasha said, doing her absolute best to stay calm.

Steve was the Leader of their team, but he was also the youngest. And Natasha didn't think it was fair for someone so young to go through so many awful things.

She knew he still had nightmares about his past, it was probably why he had left the Tower, but heck, she knew what it was like to have those nightmares.

And it made all of the anger inside her bubble up when she thought about him suffering the same thing.

"Yeah? Well, I'd much rather take that chance than having him be tortured to death because we take too long to rescue him."

"It might be safest, Natasha." Bruce chimed in, and Natasha glared at him.

"See? Even Dr. Jekyll agrees with me," Tony piped up, but Natasha ignored him.

"No, it's not," Natasha added with a sigh and shake of her head.

"Natasha's right." Clint said, the first words he had spoken since the video. He turned around and faced everybody, gaze steady. He looked everyone over once, showing how serious he truly was. "We have to rescue him."

* * *

Steve slowly woke up from being unconscious, and blinked several times to focus on his surroundings. Fear rushed through him for a good few seconds, before he realized what had happened.

He sunk back down into the chair, careful not to jostle the chains on his arms, but then realized another thing; his right arm was now completely numb. Gently trying to move his fingers to see if they at least had some feeling, he soon found out that they were now numb, too.

He tried as hard as he could, but no matter what they would not move.

They might just be asleep, but he couldn't help but believe that it had something to do with the horrid pain in the back of his head that kept making him fight for consciousness.

A feeling of sickness and helplessness washed over him as he heard a metal door creak open from behind him.

Loud footsteps echoed throughout the small and semi-dark room he was held hostage in, and he heard faint voices along with metal wheels rolling across the floor.

"Why, Captain, you are awake! And in perfect time, too." The man said, and Steve winced from the overly loud voice.

The guy snapped his fingers towards the other masked man and directed an order towards him, "Get the camera ready!" The other guy quickly fulfilled the order and left the room. Steve's mind was still overall foggy, but he still somehow managed to focus on the black screen somewhere in front of him, that lit up.

He saw five Avengers now. But, weren't there only four last time? He lightly shook his head to remove that thought and tried to focus on the situation.

The five Avengers stopped what they were doing and immediately looked up at the screen.

"Another hour has gone by," He paused and looked over at Steve who had pretty much figured out what was going to happen. "You know what happens now," He said before directing another order for his assistant to do.

He immediately obeyed and brought in the stuff wanted, before quietly exiting the room.

Steve glanced over at the supplies brought in and swallowed hard when he realized what kind of torture they were about to perform. There was a watering can and a cloth.

They were going to do water boarding.

He knew, because, he had experienced it during the War. And apparently, when he glanced up at the screen, Natasha, Bruce, and Clint all knew it, too.

Horror reflected in their eyes as they watched his captor lower the chains to start the torture. Tony and Thor both had confused looks on their faces, but it didn't hide the look of fear in their eyes.

Natasha and Clint both looked over at Steve, and he just offered a tight smile; hoping to convince them that he could make it through all this.

After all, he was a Super-Soldier.

But he knew, from personal experience, that even a Super-Soldier had a hard time withstanding torture. He inhaled a shaky breath, preparing for it to begin. The guy grabbed the cloth and shoved Steve's head back; causing pain to explode even more in the back of his head.

Definitely not helping the extremely slow healing back there. He screwed his eyes shut against the pain of his head connecting with the back of the metal chair.

"You see, this is my favorite type of torturing," The guy began.

"It leaves no marks on the body, yet it causes tremendous pain." Steve blinked a couple times, trying to ward off the darkness surrounding him.

"Let's begin, shall we?" The cloth was placed over his face, and right afterwards, water started to pour down above it.

He clenched his jaw and tried to hold his breath for as long as he could, which was a pretty long time, but the water still managed to somehow get into his mouth and nose.

He could feel the water enter his lungs and squeezed his eyes shut even more from the pain. He felt like someone had just taken a match and lit his lungs and esophagus on fire.

A burning sensation roared inside his chest and he prayed to God for it stop.

But it didn't.

He tried to hold onto the shred of consciousness left in him, but slipped away into the black abyss waiting for him.

* * *

Clint glared at the masked madman who grabbed the watering can and began pouring on the cloth on Steve's face. Anger, no, _rage_ , built up inside of him and he couldn't wait for the moment when he could get his hands on the man and tear him apart.

Torturing him in every way he'd done to Steve.

He faintly heard Thor's yell of anger and Tony's cursing, whose words were breaking on different syllables, but instead focused on Steve's left hand that had been clenched into a fist.

He knew that Steve couldn't take much more of the torture, given his injuries, but also knew how dangerous it was to just deliver the money into the guy's hands.

Steve's strength appeared to be draining, and quickly, and this was only the _second_ time he had been tortured.

Well, that Clint knew about. He was pretty sure the guy had probably been torturing Steve in between the hours, too.

They had to rescue Steve and capture the other guy. But a recurring thought kept running through his head; what if they were too late? It could be days before they find anything about the guy.

 _Days._

And only to find out one measly thing? He knew what it was like to be tortured. Heck, he probably couldn't even count on one hand how many times he'd been tortured, but none had really been as bad as what Steve was currently getting.

He glanced over at Natasha who had tears in her eyes that were threatening to fall. But as always, the brave spy refused to allow them that freedom.

Her arms were crossed, and her fingernails were digging into the flannel on her arms. His own hands were balled into fists, also.

But he did know that Steve and Natasha had some sort of ' _thing_ ', going on between them, but neither of them had really addressed it yet.

He couldn't begin to understand how awful she had to feel. He imagined that if anyone ever hurt his family like this, he might just go on a revenge killing spree.

He prayed that his family wouldn't ever have to experience something as awful as this. He watched as Natasha silently choked on a sob, closing her eyes and looking down; refusing to see Steve suffer anymore.

He silently wrapped an arm around her, causing her to lean into him for comfort, and vowed to get Steve out of that hell-hole. He took a deep breath, feeling a sudden surge of hope wash over him; but that was before he saw Steve's hand go limp.

* * *

 **Yup, so there ya' go! :D I always love hearing your guy's thoughts and am now sending virtual tabby kittens through replies! ;)**


	3. Tortured Reassurance

**Short, but it has to be in order for the next chapter to be so juicy. ;)**

 **Disclaimer: Do I seriously have to do this every time? *Sighs* Fine. No, I don't own anything Marvel. Except the Captain America Shield pillow I got for my birthday, and the Captain America fathead I got for my birthday, and the Avengers blanket...Fine, I guess I do own some Marvel stuff, just not this story.**

* * *

"Guys, I think I got something!" Bruce said as he all but ran into the room. Natasha, Thor, Clint, and Tony all jerked towards Bruce; eager of some news. Bruce waved some paper in his hand, looking surprisingly happy despite the situation.

Tony immediately went over to his side as he laid the papers out on the table. Once Tony was next to him, he started explaining his ideas.

"Wait, so you're saying that you think that Steve is being held on one of these islands?" Tony asked as he pointed to some microscopic island in the Pacific Ocean. Bruce nodded.

"Yeah," He began, "You see, one of the times yesterday when Steve was getting tortured, I was able to locate his coordinates using the camera feed. This seems like a fairly small operation considering they didn't even cover up the location in the camera feed."

Tony sighed in relief. It had been three days since Steve was captured, and Tony had to admit, that those three days might just be the worst days of his life. And that was saying something.

"So we can go get him?" Tony asked hopefully, not even caring anymore if he looked desperate. Truth be told, he was desperate. Bruce's brows furrowed together as he looked over the map again.

"Well, I need to make sure that these coordinates are correct. Which, really, I can't do that until the next time Steve gets tortured. And unfortunately, I won't even be that sure then, because maybe this operation is a lot bigger than I had originally anticipated."

Bruce shrugged once. "They might have put false coordinates to throw us off." Bruce said, and Tony sighed as sunk down into the chair beside him.

"So basically, Steve's going to have to go through more torture for us to find him, if we're even that lucky that the coordinates are correct?" Bruce sighed and nodded slowly.

"It's almost four o'clock now," He said quietly and Tony nodded. The Avengers, minus one, all waited silently in the main room of the Tower for the clock to strike four.

Tony's foot tapped anxiously as he wondered how bad of condition their Captain would be in this time. The last time they'd seen him get tortured, which was only an hour ago, Steve's condition looked like he was basically past death's door and on his way up the stairs.

The TV suddenly turned on and the same thing they'd been seeing for the past seventy two hours showed up. Steve was just basically limp in the chair, his eyes were glazed over, missing the usual determined spark in them.

He'd lost that look about seventeen hours before. How Steve was even alive was a mystery to Tony, the guy had been through hell and back and it was still going on.

Steve's skin looked unusually pale and Tony tried to ignore the blood that surrounded the chair Steve was in as Steve tried hard to control his breathing.

That same, stupid and idiotic jerk that had been giving Steve hell in a hand basket the past couple of days walked in front of the screen and all Tony wanted was to get Steve back and place a bullet hole between that masked man's eyes.

And as he glanced at all the others, he realized they all felt the same way.

"So, you still haven't given me what I want, so once again I'm afraid you're Captain's going to have to go through some, unfortunate circumstances." The guy chuckled darkly, and Tony shot a discreet glance over at Bruce who was on a laptop beside the TV typing away.

Tony looked back at the screen and watched as the man grabbed a gun; his heart dropped to his feet and he swallowed hard. The gun cocked and Steve watched as the man aimed the gun towards his right shoulder.

Suddenly, a shot rung out and Steve jerked as he screwed his eyes close against the pain and electricity. Steve bit down on his lip so hard, trying not to scream out in agony, Tony could see the blood forming there.

Tony was also biting his lip, trying not to yell out obscenities at the jerk who was torturing the best kid Tony had ever known. His voice was getting hoarse from overuse of yelling, also.

But Tony couldn't stop the flood of thoughts entering his mind of how he was going to make that guy suffer a long and painful death for doing this. Steve didn't deserve this.

God, he was just a _kid_!

A freakin' kid!

Tony could still remember Steve's shy laugh whenever he was uncomfortable from somebody complimenting him and the way he ran a hand through his hair whenever Tony got on his nerves, and the way he got into the baseball games he would watch on TV.

And the one time he'd gotten into a paint fight with Natasha when he was trying to paint the sunset in peace, or the time the gang had thrown Steve a surprise birthday party, earning that awkward, boyish laugh from Steve.

And the time Steve had come down to the lab and Tony had shown him some of his inventions, making Steve look like an awestruck kid at some Theme Park, or even the time Steve, Thor and Clint had gone to the laser arena and gotten into a mini laser battle.

Clint had thought he could beat Steve in the game because of his archery skills, Thor had thought he could beat him because of his battle skills and also because he had played with Darcy and Jane numerous times.

But surprisingly, Steve had beaten both of them and won the whole game.

Tony almost smiled at the memory, until he heard another two gunshots ring out. Tony watched in horror as they tore through the flesh on Steve's knee and lower abdomen.

Steve cried out in pain and he screwed his eyes shut again, but Tony still saw the tears slowly leak out from underneath his eyelids.

Before Steve could even catch his breath, the guy shot again and the bullet pierced the top of Steve's left shoulder. Thankfully, far enough away from his heart to hurt him that way.

But that time Tony did shout a few choice words at Steve's captor and torturer. But the guy just chuckled lowly as he looked back at the screen from a slowly dying Steve who was trying hard to take in shaky breaths.

After all the torturing, that consisted of being beaten with a whip, being shot with a gun, having a knife be drug across his skin and shoved into his flesh a few times, and water boarding, and starvation, and electrocution and so many others, Tony knew that Steve should be dead.

Heck, he should have been dead two days ago.

And from what looked like an awful head injury in the back of his head, Tony was nervous with every second he watched Steve, afraid the next breath will be the last. Tony turned his attention away from Steve, to the masked man.

"You Avengers are wasting your time and your Captain's precious life. This could be the final blow," He paused and cocked his head thoughtfully.

"How will it feel for the Avengers to slowly watch your Captain die from blood loss? Because I have a feeling that time is close." Tony clenched his fist and looked over at Bruce, who had just looked up at him an mouthed, 'I got it'.

Tony almost sighed in relief, but remembered he needed to keep his cool in front of the camera.

"Goodbye, Avengers, nice seeing you again, I assume we will be seeing each other soon again, hmm?" He hummed, and it took every ounce in Tony to not punch the screen. Tony took one more look at Steve, before the screen went black.

Bruce looked up at the Avengers, and they could see his eyes tinge green for a split second before he said;

"Let's go."

* * *

 **Hope you enjoyed, feel free to tell me about it please! :D**


	4. Freedom By Treason

**Here ya' go! It's the much anticipated chapter that _ _ _ _ and the _ _ _ _ it! Haha! Yeah, right. Like I'd spoil it for you...**

 **Oh, and real quick, I like to picture Clint and Natasha being like very close siblings, anyone else?**

 **Disclaimer: Fine, I'll play along. I own nothing...**

* * *

Steve's whole chest shook as he tried to take in another breath. He was somewhere between conscious and unconscious, and really wanted to go into the bliss that was painless and also beckoning for him.

He slowly blinked to open his eyes when he had realized they were closed. How had that happened? He looked up to the side where two of his captors were standing and talking.

"I don't care," One of them began, or finished. Steve wasn't really sure. "This is too dangerous for a too little gain. The Avengers are a mighty force to bargain with, we can't defeat them." He said, and apparently that made the other man extremely mad.

"What are you talking about!? I did not come this far for nothing! You're crazy!" The guy shouted, causing Steve to wince.

"I am not the one who's being crazy;" He replied cooly. "Taking on the Avengers is foolish. It's absolute death. Now I think we should let them have their Captain; I don't want my whole life of crime to just end right now."

"No way! If you want to go, then go. But I'm staying," He declared as he crossed his arms, and the other guy just scowled.

"You know I can't leave with you still here," The older man said and the younger man just smirked.

"Exactly," He stated and the other guy shook his head.

"You asked for it," He muttered, before suddenly kicking the guy in the stomach, causing him to double over, and then he hit him hard in the back of the head sending him to the ground.

And at this point and time Steve was just barely coherent enough to be slightly aware of what was going on.

The older man walked away from the unconscious man on the floor, and walked over to the wall where a lever was.

He paused a few seconds, debating his options, before suddenly flipping the switch; causing Steve's arms to fall loose from the chains and his whole body slump down in the chair.

Then the guy exited the room, leaving Steve and that man in the room with the door closed. All Steve wanted to do was go to sleep so he didn't have to feel all the pain that was screaming in his whole body.

But instead he managed to somehow get on his knees off of the chair, almost tipping over onto his right because he could barely feel that side. Pain shot up his leg from the gunshot in his knee and the wounds on his thighs.

He bit his tongue to stop the cry of pain from escaping his lips, but it only half worked. He didn't want to alert the guards that he was loose, but knew he needed to get out now. He blearily noticed a gun over on the table next to his chair.

He feebly attempted at walking, but only ended up on his knees again, causing pain to roar up all over his body. He clenched his jaw but kept moving until he could just barely reach the gun.

He weakly tried to grab it, and as soon as he felt the cold metal that was the barrel of the gun, he almost smiled in relief.

And he probably would have if his whole body didn't hurt like hell right now.

He pulled it off the table, and it nearly feel to the ground even with him holding it. He couldn't believe how heavy it had suddenly gotten.

He attempted at half-crawling and half-walking to the door, and he wasn't sure how he did it, but he managed to get to the door with his hand on the handle. He pulled down on it and managed to get it open a crack.

He slowly opened the door, gun at the ready, in case anyone was there guarding it. And his guess was correct, he realized as two guards came running over as soon as the door opened.

He wasted no time in shooting them in the upper right shoulders, causing them to stumble back and clutch their shoulders in pain.

He shot them again in the knees, causing them to fall down this time, before he tried to stand up, pleasantly surprised that he was able to; with the help of the wall.

Pain flared up all over his body, but he bit down on his tongue and tried to ignore it as he took a weak step, almost falling to the ground when he found that his legs wouldn't support his weight.

His own knee had been shot and his other leg was currently fighting off the feeling of numbness. He tried to keep walking on though, because it was the only way he could get to safety.

He managed to get down the hallway, only spotting one more guard, when he heard a gun cock from behind him.

He spun around a little too fast, he realized, as his vision was blurred to the point of near complete blackness.

But that wasn't his problem; no, his problem was that he only had one bullet left. He stumbled back, hand on the wall supporting him, but the guy smiled evilly and took a couple of steps closer towards him.

"Going for a leisurely stroll, Captain? Lovely day, isn't it?" Steve shakily rose the gun, threatening the guy, but he merely chuckled as he took a couple of steps closer.

"It's a very nice time of the year for a casual walk in the afternoon," He paused, and aimed the gun towards Steve a little better.

"But I'm afraid it's going to have to be cut short," He barely finished saying before firing the gun twice, tearing through the still-healing flesh in Steve's abdomen.

He doubled over in pain and fell to the ground gasping from the new sharp pains in his stomach.

He clenched his jaw and tried to crawl back away from the man, who was now aiming again, only towards Steve's head, but found he could barely move with all of his wounds.

"D-don't c-come any c-closer," Steve rasped out, voice scratchy and hoarse from no use. His throat hurt something horrible, but it was nothing compared to every other pain that was pulsing in his body.

But thankfully, his body had started to go numb about seven hours before; he knew that was probably a bad thing but couldn't really bring himself to care right about now.

He clenched his teeth and aimed the gun, which was wavering and shaking uncontrollably. The guy laughed at his 'threatening' demeanor and came closer.

"You do not scare me, Captain. Do you really think I'd let you live through this?" Steve's vision was blurred and he started to drift into unconsciousness but knew that this time he wouldn't ever wake back up if he did so. "I did not do all this to allow you your freedom," He cocked his head towards Steve.

"What's it like; to live in a world you don't belong in? Is it like, perhaps, being thrown into some parallel universe? Everything is different for you, except for one main thing; you fight. You fight for freedom, your life, your world." He paused.

"But tell me Captain, can you ever leave this parallel universe? War has become you. You once fought to end it, and now you fight to keep it, as it is the only familiar thing for you. This so called team you have, the _Avengers_ ," He drawled out the word bitterly.

"They shall never really care for you; it is merely a dream. You can never end war, but you can become war. Because, just what would you be without it?" He inquired thoughtfully. Steve panted heavily, as the beads of sweat wetted his brow.

"Y-you're w-wrong," Steve choked out.

"Oh? How so?" He asked, never moving the gun from it's aim towards Steve's head.

"I-I care a-about my t-team, and w-we do f-fight t-to end w-war. But I-I can l-live without w-war, I-I'd h-have my t-team. But y-you," He took in a shaky breath. "Never c-could..." Steve ended breathlessly, eyes growing heavy. Even in his pain induced haze, he could see the anger settle in the guy's eyes.

"Enough of this talk; it is time to finish my job." He aimed the gun, finger on trigger, but Steve wasn't going to give up that easily. Steve brought the gun up even more, trying to threaten the guy a little bit, but he was unfazed.

Suddenly, a loud crashing sound erupted somewhere in the building, jerking the guy's attention away from Steve.

To which, Steve took the opportunity to shoot the guy in the collarbone. The guy screamed in pain as he fell to the ground; simultaneously dropping the gun as well.

Steve watched as the slipped into unconsciousness and then weakly grabbed the gun off the floor.

He heard another loud sound, and could only hope that was his teammates. He attempted at moving again, and was happily surprised when he was able to make it down the hallway.

He tried to ignore the white hot pain in his abdomen, and when he brought a hand up, he could feel the blood gushing out from there. He groaned in pain as he leaned back against the wall.

He panted heavily as he realized he couldn't go any farther.

His Super-Serum should have healed a lot of his wounds, but without proper nutrition and a bit of a rest between injuries, it couldn't possibly keep up; leaving with plenty of unhealed wounds. He heard distance sounds and crashes, and wasn't even aware that his eyes had closed. Again.

When had that happened?

He wondered as he slowly and painfully drifted into the black cloud that had been following him all along.

* * *

Tony flew to the side, right out of the way of a gun blast, and fired his repulsors at the attacker.

He glanced towards Hawkeye who was currently getting rid of a group of guards without his bow or any arrows at the moment; they were strapped onto his back. Tony recalled something about Clint saying something about wanting the pleasure to himself.

Then Tony glanced over at Thor who was busy circling the island, looking for any more guards, while Bruce had already Hulked out and was busy trampling guards and breaking down the doors on the building.

Tony didn't even see Black Widow, until he heard a groan of pain behind him and turned around to see a guard, holding one of those guns, fall to the ground and Natasha behind him with her Widow Bites. His eyes widened behind the mask, and she smirked.

"Let's go. Hulk's got the doors down and Thor secured the perimeter." She said and he nodded once before putting an arm around her and blasting off towards the building.

As soon as they got there were already a bunch of guards waiting for them.

So without even stopping completely, and with her permission from previous missions and training issued by Steve, he dropped her and she rolled right into the action; shooting already while she was rolling on the ground.

Tony immediately fired several repulsors into the chests of the guards and flew off down the hall; taking out any guards that he saw.

Apparently, Bruce had been wrong and this was a heck of lot bigger operation than he originally thought.

But Tony was not about to rub that in his face right now; Hulk would probably rip Tony's own face off for that. Tony noticed some steps leading towards a basement and decided to take them. He flew off down there, not seeing any more guards as he did so.

He hoped and prayed that they would find Steve before it was too late. He noticed a door and wasted no time on shooting it down; but was not prepared for what he would see behind the door.

His breath hitched in his throat at the sight of Steve on the ground, back against the wall, in his own blood.

His entire body was covered in blood, even his hair. Tony cautiously took a few steps towards him, completely ignoring the other body laying face down on the floor, and crouched down beside Steve.

It wasn't until then that Tony had noticed Steve's blood covered chest shakily rising and falling. Tony let out a breath he wasn't even aware he had been holding.

"Thank God," He breathed out. He glanced over at the other man, and realized that he was the 'masked' man who had been torturing Steve.

Tony's gauntlet clenched into a fist at the sight, but his moment of anger was interrupted by a voice behind him.

"Oh my God..." Natasha whispered as she came into the hallway and then knelt down next to Steve. She reached a shaking hand up to his neck, and Tony could see the relief and realization enter her eyes.

"This is awful," She choked out as she looked over his whole body. "Who-" She started saying, but stopped when Tony pointed at the man who was slowly coming conscious over on the floor.

Tony could see the anger and deep loathing settle in her eyes and was thankful that he was not that guy.

She grabbed the man by the front of his suit and threw him up against the wall, earning a scream of pain from him. "You, you did this! You worthless piece of shit!" She yelled before throwing him down to the ground; ridding him unconscious again.

"He deserves more. So much more." She said almost inaudibly. Tony nodded before turning back to Steve again.

"We need to get him to a hospital right away." Tony said as he looked the much younger man over. "I can try to fly him there," He said again as he tried to carefully gather Steve's limp and bloodied body in his arms.

He tried to ignore the feeling inside of him that was nagging at him and telling him he wouldn't make it to the hospital in time.

Because Tony didn't think he would be able to handle it if Steve died on the way to the hospital because of Tony.

He fired up his thrusters and flew towards the steps and out of the hallway. He refused to look down at Steve and all the scarlet blood that was smearing across his suit.

He then flew out of the building, ignoring all the questions that were directed to him, and headed for the hospital; hoping and praying he would make it in time.

* * *

 **Question time! Who here is an extrovert, and who here is an introvert? I'm personally an introvert, but I also still love hanging out with my friends and going to certain social stuff. Just hate spending time with my extrovert sister. Lol.**


	5. Beginning Of The End

**Chapter five coming up! Hope you enjoy this one, too!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own this for the thousandth time.**

* * *

Tony flew as fast as he possibly could without harming Steve, and landed on a Helicarrier that had been flying behind towards the base.

Without even completely stopping, he slammed open the door to the inside and ran in.

"I need a medic over here now! He's in serious condition!" He shouted, and immediately a dozen doctors and nurses came running up and took Steve away from Tony.

Tony watched in horror as they placed his still limp body on a hospital bed and immediately started hooking bags of blood and IV's to him.

Tony felt a lump constrict his throat when he heard all the injuries they were shouting. Soon, however, Steve was wheeled away into a surgical room and Tony was left behind to worry.

So, Tony did what he always did in times like this, especially when it came to someone young, like Steve, he flew off back to the battle to take his minds off things.

* * *

Tony was exhausted; through and through. After they had finished the battle, they'd stayed behind to help clean up since none of them really wanted to sit around in the hospital worrying.

And then they'd gotten all cleaned up and had all their minor wounds checked and cleaned. And after all that, they now sat in the waiting room of the Helicarrier's med bay.

Tony was leaning up against the wall next to the door for Steve's room, listening for something, anything that would signal Steve was alive, but there was nothing.

Tony usually did this when they had had a tough mission and Steve had gotten injured severely, because painkillers and anesthesia didn't work on the Super-Solider.

So, Tony could usually hear metal breaking or something from Steve holding onto it so tight, and on very rare and horrible occasions, Tony could hear Steve's agonizing and horrid screams of pain.

It was sort of a way Tony would torture himself, but it helped him analyze the situation and be able to know how Steve was. And it also helped him realize just how young Steve truly is, yet he sure doesn't act like it.

Yeah, Tony's always making fun of him and calling him 'grandpa', but truth be told he really liked the kid.

Tony sighed and leaned his back against the wall as he looked out at the others. Thor wasn't here right now because he had said something about, 'different things needed to be sorted out'.

But ever since he had left it had been storming outside.

Clint was tapping his foot softly and anxiously, with his arm around Natasha, while she was silently chewing her nails.

And Bruce had been sitting in the chair, hands clasped, elbows resting on his knees with his forehead resting against his hands. And Tony wasn't sure if he was resting, or praying.

But he knew that every once in a while he could see Bruce's mouth move, and he also knew they needed all the help they could get from Him.

Several more hours of this went by, leaving Tony to start feeling desperate. And just as Tony was thinking about getting up and leaving, suddenly the door opened and a doctor emerged from it, several others behind him.

Tony got out of the way of the door so they could all come out, and everyone else quickly stood up and hurried over to the doctor, Clint's arm still around Natasha.

The doctor sighed, already knowing their question.

"It was brutal. But he's all right," He winced slightly before continuing. "We almost lost him several times. His injuries are too numerous for me to just rattle off right now; they'll all be in here." He said as he handed Tony a white folder with a S.H.I.E.L.D logo on it.

He started going through it, heart dropping at the sight of all the injuries.

"We operated on him, and took a few bullets that were lodged in him out, and we stitched up as many wounds as we could, but-" The doctor was saying.

"Hold up," Tony interrupted before looking up from the folder and meeting the doctor's gaze. "It says here that there's a fracture in the back of his skull. Explain." Tony said and the doctor sighed.

"We're not sure how it happened, but we are sure that it's healing up fairly well. We thought there might be some damage to the brain, but we are pretty sure everything is going smoothly. We'll know more when he wakes up." The doctor explained calmly.

"When can we see him?" Bruce asked.

"You can be with him anytime, but keep in mind his condition is very delicate and the fact that he might not wake for quite some time." He said and Bruce nodded.

"Thank you, Doctor." Natasha said and he nodded once before leaving all of them in the waiting room.

"Well," Tony began. "I guess we should go in now," He said quietly, and everyone nodded before he started opening the door slowly. A few small gasps echoed through out the room at the sight of Steve on the bed.

He looked better than when they had found him, that Tony knew because he would never be able to get rid of the sight of a bleeding out Steve from his mind. But now he almost looked worse for some odd reason.

He looked, _vulnerable_.

He looked like the walls of the room would just open up and swallow him whole.

His hair didn't have the blood in it anymore, and all the blood that covered his body was now gone, but the way he lying in the bed with the white blankets covering him that matched his skin tone at the moment, it was too much for Tony.

He looked away from Steve and instead decided to focus on the bag of blood that was slowly draining into Steve's arm.

He could faintly hear the quiet yet steady beeping of the heart monitor, and could see the rhythmic rise and fall of Steve's chest in the corner of his vision and almost sighed in relief.

But other than those things telling him that Steve was alive, you wouldn't be able to tell. At least not with the way Steve looked. He sighed quietly, but it was the loudest sound in the room, save for the heart monitor.

He sat down in the chair next to Steve's bed, while the others, excluding Natasha, sat down on the couch. Natasha sat down on the side of the bed and just watched Steve breathe.

Tony knew Thor would be back when he was ready, so there was really no reason to try and contact him.

Tony pulled out his phone anyway and tried to busy himself that way. Because he knew one thing;

It was gonna' be a long wait.

* * *

 **Question time again!**

**What is your favorite color and why? I have three (Not very precise, I know. But it doesn't have to be! Feel free to list every single one!), red, blue and black. Red because it excites me, gives me a sort of exhilarating feeling inside. Blue because it's calming and it's peaceful, gives me a sort of nostalgic feeling.**

 **Black because it's dark, almost depressing, yet exciting enough to keep me intrigued. I feel it's sort of a cross between red and blue. I also love so many other colors, but these are my favorite. :)**


	6. Sacrificial Youth

**Thank you guys so much for reviewing! It makes my day so incredible! :) I really appreciate it!**

 **Now, here you go! :D**

 **Disclaimer: I own none of this. ;)**

* * *

"Natasha, you really should get some sleep." Clint said to Natasha, but she just shook her head lightly as she stared off listlessly and held Steve's hand with a firm grip.

"I'm fine," She stated and Clint turned towards Tony.

"You should, too, Tony." Clint said but Tony shook his head as he went back to typing away on his phone.

"I'm staying here for when he wakes up." Tony said and Clint sighed heavily as he raked a hand through his hair.

"Fine, suit yourself. Just know that Steve wouldn't want you to worry so much over him," Clint pointed out, but the duo only nodded.

Clint sighed again and headed out the door. It had been almost three days since they had found Steve and brought him in; and neither Natasha nor Tony had slept or really even left the room.

And Clint was worried.

Worried for Natasha and Tony for over-worrying, ironically, but he was also worried for Steve. Steve still hadn't woken up, and he really should have.

The doctors kept saying about how Steve could physically wake up whenever he wanted to, but there was something holding him back, it was almost like he had given up and just succumbed to whatever has control on him.

He walked up to the vending machine and slipped in a dollar so he could get a bottle of pop. He leaned against the side of it and sighed.

He suddenly heard several loud noises and a bunch of commotion down the hall, and looked up to see a bunch of doctors all rushing towards Steve's room.

Bottle of pop completely forgotten, Clint ran over towards them, but stood back as they all went into Steve's room, frantically yelling and shouting.

Clint felt his heart rate go up to about 100 and he watched as Natasha and Tony were shoved out of the door before it slammed shut.

Tony looked like he had seen a ghost, his eyes were wide and his skin was pale, while Natasha had her arms wrapped around her self, looking like she was about to cry any second. He immediately went to her side and tried getting her to look at him.

But she just stared at the floor trying to control her breathing. Clint looked up at Tony whose lips were pressed together in a grim line. "Tony?" Clint asked.

"He flat lined." Tony said, and all it took was those two words to knock the wind out of Clint.

After a split second of regaining his composure, he immediately wrapped an arm around Natasha and stared at the door to Steve's room, afraid that any second they were going to come out and say, 'we're sorry, we did everything we could'.

Clint closed his eyes and did the only thing he could think of.

He prayed.

* * *

Tony tapped his foot out of irritation as he looked at Steve, who was so young he could be his own son, laying unconscious on the bed. His forehead glistened with sweat, yet tremors kept wracking his body at random times.

Tony got up and grabbed another blanket to put over Steve; he currently had five. He sighed lightly as he gently laid it over top of him, careful not to disturb a sleeping Natasha, before sitting back down.

It had been five days since he had last flat lined, which meant it had been an entire ten days since they had found Steve and brought him to the hospital.

Tony couldn't help but blame himself, if only they would have been a little bit faster...

His thoughts trailed off as he looked up at the heart monitor that had started beeping a little bit faster.

He held his breath, afraid Steve was going to flat line again, but it soon went back to normal and Tony relaxed in his chair again.

He glanced over at Natasha who was currently sleeping in her chair with her head resting on Steve's calf.

He then glanced back over at Steve who looked like he was trapped in some sort of nightmare, but couldn't get out.

Steve had already flat lined three times, causing Tony to sit there on pins and needles, afraid that any moment he might flat line again and not come back. Steve's arms and legs were strapped down to the bed, much to Tony's dismay.

 _'He's already trapped in his own nightmares right now, and do you only want to make that worse!?'_

Tony had screamed at the doctor. At least there was a somewhat good reason for the straps, but Tony couldn't help but think there were better ways to do it. Steve kept having seizures and the doctors were afraid he might break something important.

Or harm the IV's and equipment around him.

The doctor had told Tony that it seemed like Steve had been having hallucinations the past ten days from his head injury, and as Tony looked down at Steve whose forehead glistened with beads of sweat and his breathing was heavy, he guessed they weren't pleasant hallucinations.

At least most of his injuries had healed and were only scars. And if Tony looked at Steve's hairline just right, he could see the scar from the hour 47 torture.

Tony's jaw and fists clenched at the just the mere thought of Steve's torture.

A small moan coming from the bed snapped Tony out of his thoughts and he was immediately at Steve's side. Steve slowly rolled his head back and forth, moaning and gasping in pain.

Apparently, that was enough to wake Natasha up because she had already pushed the button for the nurse.

"Steve?" Natasha asked as she gently placed a hand on his shoulder, he jerked away, trapped in some horrible hallucination that he had hardly any hopes of breaking out of. "Steve, it's okay," Natasha offered soothingly as she stroked some of his hair out of his face.

"Yeah, come on, Spangles." Tony tried to offer some encouragement. Just a few seconds later a nurse came into the room and immediately went over to Steve's side.

"What's going on?" She questioned as she looked over the heart monitor and a few other things. Tony explained how Steve had suddenly started acting, and the nurse just softly sighed.

"I'm afraid we can't do anything about it. He's not in any physical harm, only mental. We've told you before, if he comes out of this it'll be his decision, but we can't help him in anyway." The nurse said.

"What, so he's just going to have to go through even more torture in order to wake up?" Tony said, frustration obvious in his stance. The nurse sighed.

"I'm afraid so. The only way you can try to get him out of this is to talk to him. Encourage him, ya' know, show him he has a reason to wake up." The nurse stated and Natasha nodded.

"Okay," She said quietly. "We'll do that. Thank you." The nurse nodded with a small yet sad smile.

"It's no problem, just make sure you let me know if anything changes." Tony and Natasha both nodded before she left the room. Tony sighed as he sat back down and Natasha sat on the side on Steve's bed.

"I wish he'd just wake up already, I don't know why he's so stubborn." Natasha said and Tony huffed.

"Yeah, I think stubborn is his middle name." Tony muttered and a small smile graced Natasha's lips as she stroked some of Steve's hair again.

"Remember that time in Brazil?" Natasha asked and Tony huffed again and nodded.

"How could I forget?"

"He was just so willing to give his life for us, it makes me sick." Natasha said quietly and Tony sighed.

"I'm just thankful it didn't come to that, it was close enough the way it was." Tony said and Natasha nodded in agreement.

Steve had been out on a mission in some place classified, S.H.I.E.L.D wouldn't say, and the other Avengers had all somehow managed to get kidnapped by some elite group of terrorists.

Tony had been on a business venture when he had gotten kidnapped, Thor was actually just the streets of New York and had made the rookie mistake of walking in a dark alley, while Clint and Natasha had just been at the mall.

Bruce had been in a small park near the Tower, and was drugged before he could even react to the kidnappers. Then they had all been brought into some underground facility in Brazil for questioning and probably future death.

But then Steve had found out some way on his mission; Tony still thinks that it was one of Steve's way of keeping tabs on them from S.H.I.E.L.D.

And had immediately come to their rescue, knowing full well it would be nearly impossible for only him to rescue the Avengers and take the terrorists down all by himself.

But of course, he didn't want to get S.H.I.E.L.D involved in fear of how dangerous it was and how he didn't want any more casualties than necessary.

And when Steve had gotten there, he tried to negotiate with them, saying how he was the Leader of the team and how he was a lot more valuable for questions and all the stuff the group wanted, rather than one of his teammates.

To which the terrorist group were about to agree when Steve finally kicked his plan into action. They had been letting the Avengers go and starting to take Steve captive, when all the Avengers attacked at once, now free from the rooms they had been chained up in.

Tony had to admit that it was a pretty flawless plan and that the group of terrorists weren't exactly the smartest, until Cap had somehow ended up in a choke hold with a knife to his throat by the leader.

Tony still could remember the look in Steve's eyes as he was slowly losing consciousness, telling the Avengers to just go instead of risking their lives to save him. It was a look of a certain type of fear, but not fear for himself, no, it was fear for his teammates.

But all-in-all, Tony had to admit the mission went pretty well.

 _Yeah._

Steve had only ended up getting a sliced neck from the guy who had been holding Steve in a choke hold, and thanks to him Tony will never be able to get the image of Steve going limp from being choked and having his neck sliced open.

It was truly a miracle he survived that.

"Yeah," Natasha breathed after their little moment of remembrance. "He's such an idiot." She whispered fondly as her fingers ran along his clenched jaw line, affection evident in her voice.

She sighed lightly as she took Steve's hand back in hers; the pads of her thumbs gently running over his knuckles. Causing him to relax just the slightest. "Tony," She began, capturing Tony's attention.

"Do you think, and be honest," She paused as slight smirk crossed her lips, before a somber look reached her face.

"Do you think that Steve will wake up from this?" She asked, lip trembling the tiniest amount possible. Tony sighed heavily and ran a hand over his face.

"I honestly don't know, Natasha. I guess we've just got to do what the nurse said, give him a reason to come back." Tony said and she nodded wordlessly.

"We'll do what we can, I can promise you that, Natasha. We won't give up on him. After all, it's what Steve would do for us." Tony said, before they once more fell back into silence, only interrupted by Steve's heavy breathing. But Tony was going to make sure he made good on his promise.

After all, it really _is_ what Steve would do for them.

* * *

 **Again, question time!**

 **What's your favorite season and why? I don't really know if I can pick, but I'll give my reasons as to why I love them all!**

 **Spring: Beginnings. It gives me a cheerful feeling that things are fresh and can start new after Winter.**

 **Summer: Nostalgia. Memories. Fun. You can do so much in Summer, and I love all the possibilities! It's a time for blasting music, hanging with friends, adventures, and making memories! And I love it when everything is green and there are storm clouds rolling in, it's like the color red for me. I love the wind against my face, kind of like Autumn's crispness.**

 **Fall: It's crisp. Cool. It give's me a feeling of calm reassurance. When things are turning brown, and there's dark clouds around signaling cool weather, I feel the feeling I get from the color blue.**

 **Winter: Comfort. Love. Cheerfulness. Joy. It's a cozy time, yet fun. Singing Christmas carols, everyone coming together, forgetting about poverty and war. Everyone comes together and has fun, while being reminded how cherished they are by our Savior. This is all weird, I'm sure, but I absolutely love your guy's responses! :)**


	7. Hallucinated Hatred

**So, this is probably not gonna' make much sense, but trust me, the next chapter should kind of clear it up! :D And thank you guy _so_ much for reading and reviewing, it means so unbelievably much!**

 **Disclaimer: I own none of this. ;)**

* * *

 _"Bucky, please, you can get through this. You don't have to do this." Steve panted as he dodged another punch thrown by the Winter Soldier. "I'm your friend, Buck, you know me." He said as he delivered his own, yet much less harsh, blow to the Soldier's side._

 _He quickly recovered, however, and pulled out the knife in his belt and charged a defenseless Steve._

 _"We were best friends, brothers even, we grew up together." Steve rose his arm to block the knife as he kicked the Winter Soldier back._

 _"You saved me countless times when we were grown up and even when we were adults. We met in kindergarten, remember? Big bully Sanchez and his six minions?"_

 _Steve almost chuckled, but then had to dodge another stab attempt. "He was picking on some little girl, and I got into a fight with him over it, causing you to save the day; just like you always did. Buck," Steve began._

 _Panting heavily as his vision blacked out for only a split second, but that was all it took for the knife to be driven into his side. He cried out in pain as he stumbled back, deeper into the frozen, pine forest._

 _"Bucky, please, you have to fight this. You...you said until the end of the line, remember?" Steve asked as his vision continued to blur for odd reasons. But he guessed it was probably because of being in an intense fight for the past hour and a half._

 _A hint of recognition flashed through Bucky's eyes, and Steve had almost gotten his hopes up, when suddenly a sick smirk took the recognition's place._

 _"Yeah? Well, I guess this is the end of the line, pal." The Soldier said bitterly, and before Steve could even react, the Winter Soldier charged at him, knife in hand, and stabbed Steve straight in the chest._

 _Steve fell to his knees as an unbearable pain flooded all throughout his body. He bit his lip to stop the cry of pain, but it still came out as he gasped for air._

 _His hand came up clumsily as he fumbled with the hilt of the knife handle._

 _"Bucky..." Steve choked out, before he started coughing up blood. His vision blacked out, and Steve had no hopes of it coming back this time._

 _He looked up, blue eyes meeting blue eyes one last time, before his eyes fluttered close and he fell to the ground; dying a slow, yet deserved death._

 _He became Captain America in a slow, agonizing way, he felt it was fitting for the Super-Soldier to die a slow, agonizing death. He thought this was the end, until he suddenly heard a feminine voice speak through the haze._

 _He blinked open his eyes, expecting that same frozen hell he had been in only a few moments before, slowly dying, only to find he was standing in some ballroom._

 _He looked around, confused at what was going on, when he heard that voice again._

 _He turned around and saw Peggy standing on the opposite side of the ballroom. "Peggy?" He asked in confusion. It sure looked like Peggy, and sounded like Peggy, but she had a cold, foreign look in her eyes; much like Bucky had right before this. He took a cautious step forward and asked again. "Peggy?"_

 _"You're late." She said cooly, but yet she was missing her usual smirk._

 _"Peg, I'm so sorry-" He started saying but was suddenly interrupted by her yelling._

 _"You left me!" She suddenly said, startling Steve into taking a step back. She took a deep breath before speaking again._

 _"I waited, and I waited for Howard to find you, but he never did. You left me, and I don't think I can ever forgive that." His heart sunk as he watched the woman he once loved cross her arms and glare at him._

 _"But Peggy, I had to. Believe me, I didn't want to. But Schmidt-" He tried to reason with her, but she only scoffed._

 _"Those are merely excuses, Soldier. If you had truly loved me, you would have not left in the first place."_

 _"Peggy," Steve's voice broke as he took a step forward. "I'm so sorry, I didn't-" He started saying, but stopped immediately when suddenly the room went dark. H_

 _e went into a defensive stance as soon as it happened, and watched as all around him people started coming out of the shadows, young and old._

 _In there, was Bucky, the Howling Commandoes, Colonel Philips, Howard Stark and so many others, some he recognized and some he didn't. He had to keep walking in a circle in order to face the growing army of people that were closing in on him._

 _"You left us."_

 _"You killed us."_

 _You let me die."_

 _"You could have saved me."_

 _"You were too late."_

 _"I saved you countless times, but you couldn't even return the favor just once?"_

 _The voices all mocked him, and no matter how many times he tried to apologize, they just kept coming closer, voices raising into yells and screams he remembered from his past._

 _"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Steve shouted over and over again. He saw Bucky's confused face, and the Winter Soldier next to him, anger obvious in his pose and voice. Philips and Howard looked disgusted, while Peggy looked at him with disappointment evident on her face._

 _"You are worthless!" Steve spun around at the new voice, and saw how it was his mother._

 _"I-" He started saying but was interrupted._

 _"You killed me! I could have lived a full life, but I had to take care of you! You pathetic nothing!" Steve fell to his knees in agony and tried to cover his ears from all the voices._

 _He kept shouting 'I'm sorry' over and over, but it didn't matter, no one would listen. He choked on a sob as everyone yelled and laughed at him._

 _"No, no, no, stop! I'm sorry!" He shouted, but it was only drowned out by sounds of ridicule. Sights of some of the fights from the War flashed through his mind as he tried to get it to all stop._

 _"Please, I'm sorry, just stop!" He shouted, and suddenly everything went silent. He slowly removed his hands and looked up, slightly panting from being out of breath._

 _The room was still completely dark, but everyone and everything was gone. He stood up, and noticed a bright light glowing on the other side of the room._

 _And for some reason he felt drawn to it, he couldn't help but start moving towards it._

 _He tried not to, but his body just kept going towards it. He felt his hand reach out towards it, and then he suddenly became engulfed in it. He felt a bright feeling fill him, before it suddenly disappeared, taking him with it._

 _And that's the last thing he remembered._

* * *

 **There ya' be! :D Hope you enjoyed!**

**Question: If you guys could go back in time, where would you go, and when? Basic question, but always interesting. :) Mine would probably be (this was immensely difficult to figure out) the 1920s. Don't know why, just always been intrigued. :D**


	8. Seized Awakening

***Drum roll* The eighth chapter has arrived! :D Thanks again for reviewing, always appreciated! :D**

 **Disclaimer: I seriously don't own this, what part of that sentence don't you understand?**

* * *

Tony tapped his foot for several reasons this time; nervousness, anxiety, impatience, and sleep-deprived-caffeine-filled-frustration.

His fingers tapped away at his StarkPhone, and he wasn't even sure exactly what he was doing with it anymore.

The past fourteen days Tony and Natasha had never left Steve's side. Tony had simply said to Pepper that he couldn't make it to any business meetings for multiple reasons, one being he didn't want to miss Steve waking up, and two being he wouldn't be able to think clearly anyway.

Natasha didn't really have anywhere to go, and profoundly refused any missions offered.

Thor had to return to Asgard for family reasons, and Tony knew he wasn't to happy about it, Bruce had confined himself to some small part of the Tower, trying to control his rage, while Clint had been in to visit off and on, but had found it easier for himself to be on missions rather than being cooped up in some hospital room.

Tony sighed heavily as he, a little harder than probably necessary, set his phone down on the table next to Steve's bed with a thud.

He didn't even care if it was broken or not, he could get a new one.

Heck, he could _build_ a new one.

At least it would help give him something to keep his mind off of Steve. He looked over at Natasha who was holding onto Steve's hand, which Tony was pretty sure she hadn't let go of yet, and staring intently at the wound, that was still healing, peeking out from underneath his hospital gown on his shoulder.

Most of his other wounds had become a thing of the past, some completely gone, some scars.

But there was one wound still remaining, and that was the gunshot wound from the last torture. Tony remembered how horrified he was from it all, but he had thought that when they'd gotten Steve's back everything would be okay.

Boy, was he wrong.

That was when some of their real problems began, because now they couldn't do anything to stop this.

Tony was snapped out of his thoughts at the sudden rapid beeping from Steve's heart monitor. Tony was just about to press the button for the nurse, when Steve started having a seizure.

Natasha stopped Tony from hitting the button, and instead focused on trying to calm Steve down. His head jerked from side to side, and his limbs twitched involuntarily.

The doctor had informed them to only press the button if it was a very serious situation, after they had pressed it numerous times, but they had the room synced up incase he would flat line again.

Steve's chest shook as he choked on his breathing and his limbs started jerking worse, causing Tony's finger to inch towards the button.

But then suddenly, Steve's jerking stopped abruptly as he stilled, and Tony immediately moved forward to make sure Steve was still breathing, even though he could faintly hear the heart monitor beeping in the background.

Steve's chest rose and fell shakily as sweat clung to his brow. He heard Natasha let out a breath of relief, and Tony sunk back down in the chair, not even realizing he had stood up.

He looked up at Natasha and saw her eyes widen as she looked at Steve. He immediately jerked his head towards Steve, as his heart leaped with a bit of hope. The heart monitor started beeping a little faster as Steve's eyebrows furrowed.

Tony's breath hitched in his throat as his heart felt like it beat out of his chest. Steve's eyes slowly fluttered open as he blinked a couple times against the harsh hospital lights.

Tony hit the switch for the light a little harder than he probably needed to, and watched as Steve looked up at them, confusion etched in his brows. Natasha let out a breath of relief and smiled at the sight.

"What happened?" Steve asked, voice hoarse, and immediately winced after doing so. Tony quickly grabbed a glass and filled it with water from the pitcher. He helped Steve take a few sips, before placing it back down on the table.

"You, who was being an absolute idiot, managed to get yourself kidnapped and then tortured for a few days, causing us to have to rescue you and then Tony here brought you to the hospital where you just happened to fall into some sort of coma for several days hallucinating, not including where you flat lined several times, making us all worried sick."

Natasha said firmly, but affection and relief underlined her voice, which did not go unnoticed by any of the participants of the room.

Steve nodded slowly for a moment, trying to let everything sink in, before looking at them for a good moment, as if trying to figure something out.

"How long?" Steve asked and Tony sighed as he sat down in the chair again, realizing why Steve as looking at them that way.

"You've been out for fourteen days." Tony stated and a look of what could only be described as relief, flashed across Steve's face.

"Is everyone okay?" Steve asked after a beat, remembering what had all happened. Tony rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, Steve, we're all alright." Tony said and another look of relief crossed Steve's features. "But you, as Natasha said, idiot, have had us all worried half to death." Tony said and Steve's brows were etched in confusion.

"Why?" He asked and Tony's jaw dropped open.

"Why?" Tony repeated. "Why!?" Tony asked in exasperation. He laughed humorlessly as he leaned back in his chair and ran a hand over his face, shaking his head. Natasha sighed and looked down, confusing Steve even more.

"Steve, you know that we like you, right?" Tony asked once his little humorless laughing fit was over.

When Steve never answered but instead kept his face in a neutral position, Tony couldn't help but scoff as he looked at him in confusion.

He was about to say something out of frustration but Natasha beat him to it.

"Steve, do you really think that Tony and I would have been here every single day for the past fourteen if we didn't care about you?"

"And Bruce, Clint, and Thor would have been here, too, but Clint knew he'd just worry himself sick over you if he did, Thor had to leave to go to Asgard for his family, and Bruce didn't think he could control himself if he saw you like this!" Natasha exclaimed, almost angrily.

"You have got to stop believing nobody likes you! I don't care what you saw in those hallucinations, they weren't real! Understand? _They weren't real_." She said emphatically, and Steve just looked at her with a look of slight confusion, shock, and a slight look of, was it, relief?

"Steve," Tony began, it being his turn to speak. "You have no idea how awful we felt when we had to watch you get tortured. It was hell. Pure and simple." Tony stated the sentence in a voice as simple as if he was adding two and two together.

"We like you, Steve. And we want to keep you around just as long as we possibly can. I'll even stash you down in the lab if I have to." Tony said and Steve chuckled.

"Do," Steve paused. "Do you really mean that?" He asked and Tony scoffed, but Natasha gently placed her hand on top of his.

"Of course we do." She said and he smiled shyly.

"T-thanks guys. But I-" He started saying, but Tony interrupted.

"Uh-uh, you forget whatever you're going to say and rest. You got it?" Steve chuckled and nodded.

"Yes, sir," He said before closing his eyes and falling back asleep almost immediately. Tony smiled as he leaned back in his chair and looked up towards the ceiling.

"Thank you God."

* * *

 **Ta-da! He lived! :D Think that's the end, huh? Got one more chapter left and then a Romanogers sequel one-shot coming! ;D**

 **Question: If you could jump into the future by ten years, would you do it? Kind of a similar question to last time's, but I just got to know. I don't think I probably would. I just feel like the surprise would be ruined and you'd have nothing to look forward to. And besides, I'd probably jinx it somehow and change the whole world's future... :)**


	9. Scars Of Yesterday

**Here's the final chapter! Well, besides the Romanogers one...**

 **But anyway, I hope you enjoy, I sure did with writing it! :)**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own it. Yet.**

* * *

"Ouch, dang it!" Tony swore as a fizzle of electricity entered his hand. Immediately Dummie came over with the fire extinguisher. "No, no, no, no! Stop it!" Tony said as he backed away from the robot.

The robot almost looked disheartened as he returned back to his outpost. Tony shook his head as he returned to his suit.

Another snap of electricity echoed through out the room and he swore again as he threw the wrench down on the table. He sighed out of frustration as he crossed his arms and leaned back against the table.

He glanced across the room to see one of his suits , covered in dried, crimson red blood. It was smeared all across the front, and Tony knew exactly whose blood that belonged to.

Yup, you guessed it.

The very guy who almost bled out in his arms as he brought him to the hospital.

Tony felt a feeling of nausea start in his stomach and immediately turned away from the suit and balanced himself on the workbench.

He squeezed his eyes shut against the sudden feeling of lightheadedness, but was only plagued by images of Steve getting tortured and finding him in the hallway of that awful, God-forbidden place.

Ever since Steve had been released from the hospital, everyone had been over-doting on him, and always talking to him, asking questions, having the annual movie night, which hadn't been annual a while ago, and just all around spending time with the guy.

But Tony just couldn't bring himself to do it. He blames himself for the whole thing even happening in the first place.

Yeah, sure, it wasn't his fault Steve had a panic attack and left the building, but he should have been able to get to him sooner.

Just a few days ago, Steve had been working out in the gym, being practically ecstatic about it considering he hadn't been able to do that in a long time, and had taken his shirt off to lift some weights, and Tony had caught a glimpse of some horrible, horrible scars.

He knew they would hopefully disappear someday, but he remembered how Steve had gotten each and every one of those scars.

There was the regular whip, and then the Cat of Nine Tails whip, and then the knives and torches, and well, basically Tony had ended up in the bathroom retching that day's dinner into the toilet.

Tony was so busy being focused on not throwing up, that he didn't even hear the footsteps enter the room.

"Tony?" A voice asked, and then it suddenly appeared at Tony's side with a hand on his shoulder.

Tony looked up, startled by the sudden presence, and stumbled back; only to have that person grab his arms and stop him from falling.

Tony straightened himself the best he could and looked up at the mysterious intruder.

He blinked a couple of times to clear the double vision and saw Steve hovering nearby, a worried expression carefully etched on his face. "Tony, are you okay?" He asked again.

"What? Oh, oh, yeah, I'm fine." Tony said as he immediately started going back to work, trying to ignore the scarred hand on his shoulder. Yeah, that's right. Even Steve's _hands_ were scarred.

"Tony, you're obviously not." Steve said gently, and Tony, carefully, shrugged off his hand as he moved to the other side of the lab for the blowtorch for melding his suit. "Tony. _Tony_." Steve said, but Tony ignored him as he continued looking for the blow torch.

"Ah, crap. Where is that stupid thing?" He muttered as he opened drawers and slammed them back shut with not success.

"Tony, for God's sake, look at me!" Steve commanded and Tony looked up for a split second before resuming his search.

"There, I looked at you, happy?" He asked sarcastically, and expected Steve to storm out. But instead, he stayed with a long, deep, and heavy sigh as he leaned against the workbench.

"Tony..." Steve said, but again, Tony ignored him as he moved over to another bench.

"Ah ha! There you are you little rascal!" He said as he grabbed it and spun around to face Steve. Steve's reaction was definitely not something either of them had expected.

He immediately clenched his fist and jaw as he took a couple of swift steps away from Tony; eyes focused on the item in Tony's hand.

Tony's gaze went down to his own hand, and he suddenly dropped the item with a loud clatter as he realized why Steve reacted the way he did. He quickly bent down to retract it and immediately set it down on the table beside him.

He looked back at Steve who screwed his eyes shut and shook his head as he tried to get back into the present.

"Sorry," Steve said, voice barely audible as he looked back up at Tony.

"It's fine. I-I totally understand." Tony said as he moved back to his suit, not taking the blowtorch with him. "I can't even look at a knife or a gun without feeling sick to my stomach," Tony accidentally let slip, and immediately froze as he wished he could take it back.

"What?" Steve asked, voice full of that young, boyish innocence he was known for. Tony sighed as he leaned against the table and closed his eyes. "Tony?"

"Steve, I've been having nightmares again. And not because of something of my past or any of that crap, it's," He paused.

"It's because of you. God, I can't even sleep anymore because of it! Every time I close my eyes, all I see is you trapped in that room in that chair and those chains, getting tortured. And I can't handle it anymore, Steve." His voice broke as he refused to open his eyes. In one quick moment, Steve was at his side.

"Tony, hey, it's okay. I'm okay. We're all okay." Steve said, and Tony scoffed.

"Yeah, _now_. But you weren't a couple of weeks ago. Steve, I know you try to hide it, but I still see the way you sometimes limp, and the way, when you reach for something, how you suddenly pull back with a wince. You're still suffering from it. We're all suffering from it."

"Heck, even Thor is starting to jump at even the slightest of sounds, and the others are on high alert, constantly watching over you. And I know I've been ignoring you, it's just-it's too much." Tony shook his head.

"It was my fault we couldn't get to you in time, and that's something I can't ever forget or forgive myself about." His voice broke off as he stared at the mark on his hand, the only injury he had received from the rescue mission.

And it still hadn't healed yet.

Tony couldn't help but believe that it wasn't healing simply because it wanted to torture him and remind him constantly how it was his fault. A scoff interrupted his self-directed-guilt.

"You don't actually believe that do you? In absolutely no way was that your fault. My fault? Yes. But yours? Never." Steve stated confidently, but Tony just shook his head.

"You died." Tony said, not even paying attention to Steve. "You flat lined several times," He lightly shook his head. "You shouldn't be here." Tony said and Steve sighed as he lightly clapped Tony's shoulder.

"Tony, look at me. _Look at me_." Steve commanded and Tony hesitantly looked up. After a moment Tony was able to react by putting his own hand on Steve's shoulder.

"You're alive." Tony choked out and Steve smiled softly.

"I am, Tony." Tony laughed, ignoring the tears that stung the back of his eyes. Tony wrapped his arms around Steve just long enough for Steve to return the favor, before releasing him and smiling.

"You want to go watch whatever horrible movie the others picked out?" Steve asked and Tony nodded with a laugh as he placed an arm around Steve's shoulder and headed towards the elevator.

"Heck, yeah." Tony breathed and Steve laughed, just what Tony had wanted. You see, the Avengers had all once thought their fearless Leader was invincible.

But now, they knew better.

* * *

 **That's it folks! Well, if you don't count the Romanogers sequel...**

 **Anyway, as always, I hope you enjoyed the story and I thank you for taking the time to review! I have one more question before I go: who are your two favorite superheroes and why? This was extremely tough for me! I love them all! But I would have to go with Cap and Widow.**

 **They're just too awesome.**

 **Now, okay, so please don't think this is weird or anything, but I have like two polar opposite sides to me, one exactly like Steve, and one exactly like Natasha. It's weird.**

 **One side is dark, manipulating and pessimistic, while the other side is happy, leader-like, charitable, nice, and optimistic. It's highly strange. Most of the time it's an even balance, but other times it's just, well, I guess strange. It's a bit of a struggle.**

 **Blue is the color that is for my 'Steve' side, and red is the color for my 'Natasha' side. But I don't know, I just really like them. :)**


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